Heroes' Caul: Chapter 5

The White Wing, D’urrou's modified YZ-900 Corellian, pulls out of hyperspace near the forest planet, Kegan, after a day of travel. Yet when Fabius Kane checks the sensors, he notices that they were pulled out prematurely by a gravity-well. D’urrou determines with the sensors that it is an artificial gravity well; he and his droid, MD-1102, work fervently to keep the old ship together under the sudden stress. IL-1D20 is injured by an explosion from a side panel and goes inoperative. As they pull into normal space, they see two-dozen TIE fighters; in the distance there is a Star Destroyer; further in the distance they can see the planet Kegan. They also see three large ships they don’t recognize.

Before they can do much more, they are hailed by the Empire’s Captain Dukar, asking what their business is and demanding their registration code. Redge sits down at the comm. He hits it with a wrench and then starts mucking with it, to buy time; he then pulls a fake number and reads it off. It works. They are told to land on the planet because the system is under quarantine; they will not be able to leave their ship until the planet is cleared. As they move in, they notice a second Star Destroyer.

One of their first priorities upon landing is to see if they can collect the bounties on Xax and Zerrisk. They also need to check Kane and Donovan's bank account and repair the ship. Redge gets them landing coordinates on the edge of the main city, Yurdi. They set down there in an enclosed hangar. Once they do, MD tells them that Donovan was also injured coming out of hyperspace. He hit his head severely and almost died; he will be out of action for a while.

The first person they see when they get out is a Bimm who identifies herself as Drea. She works for Mr. Odle (Redge’s friend), who comes sauntering in behind her. He greets Redge, then asks D’urrou about his ship and what parts it needs. Odle then estimates it at about 38,000 credits to fix. Fabius says they will get the money.

Unfortunately, they find that they cannot collect on any of their bounties. The only one that will pay for Xax dead is the Hutt they all just tried to rob and Zerrisk’s bounty has been canceled. Redge, Papa Beedo, and Kane walk across the spaceway to check on Fabius and Donovan’s bank account. The 50,000 from the Narolir exchange is there. Kane pulls out all the money, dividing it into four different cred chips. Redge says he's hungry, so they head across the way to a small diner.

As they pile up their trays, both Redge and Beedo realize they have no money. They both look at Kane, who nods grudgingly and pays. As they sit down, Fabius notices a Chevin, a Devaronian and two Duros. The Chevin seems to be looking at Beedo nastily. Fabius elbows Beedo. They are not sure what to do; they do not have a choice, however, as the Chevin comes over to them. He pushes Beedo and tells him to stay away from the Kubaz. Kane stands up, ready for action. Beedo seems confused. The Chevin moves away, calling him “Hutsah,” and returns to his group.

Beedo stands up to follow the Chevin and find out more information. Kane sits back down at Beedo’s instruction, but palms his hold-out blaster just in case. He eats slowly, trying to appear normal, but keeps himself ready for anything. Redge follows his lead. Beedo moves over to the Chevin and talks to him briefly, before returning without undue drama. Beedo does not seem to have gotten anything useful out of him. They talk over their options. At some point, they discover that all of them have been at Jabba’s palace since its fall, but aren’t sure what that might signify.

Redge says he is not very good in a fight, so he leaves to dispose of Xax and Zerrisk’s bodies, while Beedo and Kane go after the Chevin. They decide to investigate first the terms ‘Kubaz’ and ‘Hutsah.’ They discover that Dobo Hutsah is an Ithorian smuggler wanted by a Corporate Sector Businessman, Kulos Famathdarvian. It may be that the amnesiac Beedo is this Hutsah. They find the Kubaz listed as a race. The first reference they find is to a man named Garindan, whose name comes up a lot in the database. Apparently, IG-88 captured Garindan to win the head position of the IBA. No one knows what happened to Garindan after that, but there are three new bounties on his head, from three different people. They are talking it all over when they hear a firefight. Kane looks up, but Beedo is already gone. Fabius shakes his head and follows the Ithorian reluctantly.

When they arrive at the park where the battle is, they find three groups fighting each other. In the group nearest them is a female Twi’lek taking cover, fighting with another group of two: an Aqualish (Ponda Baba) and what appears to be an ugly human (Doctor Evazan), and a group of four (a human female, a Wookie, a human male who appears to be Han Solo, and a droid). All three groups are exchanging blaster fire with each other. When Kane and Beedo approach her, the Twi'lek says that Solo killed her friend, Boba Fett. As she talks, Kane recognizes her as a member of the Max Rebo Band, named Me Lyn.

Evazan fires at Solo, but misses. Beedo moves forward, past cover, acting like a crazy old man, but uses the Force to lift Evazan. The Wookie fires at the ugly near human and annihilates him. The Twi’lek misses Solo again, as the Aqualish fires at Lyn, creating a triangle of blaster fire. Kane goes to stun the Twi’lek, but does so right as the human female across the way blasts her and Me Lyn falls.

Beedo freezes Ponda Baba just as he turns to run. The Wookie and Kane shoot him and he slumps, but at the same time, Solo and the woman fire at Kane, hurting him bad. However, at that point, Beedo and Solo stop the warfare. Beedo tries to explain that he had Evazan and they owe him the bounty. Kane limps over to Baba and finishes him, while dragging the Twi’lek. The human woman then notices that Baba’s arm is beeping. They all run away just before it explodes.

They then meet and talk. The wookie calls himself “Chobacca,” the woman is Leia Organa, accompanied by the droid and Han Solo. The only one the smugglers recognize is Solo. Kane explains why he didn’t kill the Twi’lek: she was one of the back-up singers for the Max Rebo Band, who he worked hard to rescue out of Jabba's palace. Solo still wants to kill the Twi’lek for coming after them, but Leia stops him. Beedo talks of saving the galaxy, while Solo and Kane talk smuggling. The other group figures Beedo and Kane (by association) are crazy.

Beedo is suspicious and thinks that these people are lying. He tries to get the truth using the Force. ‘Solo’ admits that he is Jodo Kast. The woman is Zardra, not Leia Organa; the droid is C-3D0, and the wookie is really Pacheca. They were using the guise of the former Rebels to lure out Boba Fett, who had survived the Sarlacc Pitt and stole Kast’s Mandalorian Armor—which Kast wants back. Beedo suggests leaving the girl alive so that she can key Fett to their whereabouts, at which point they can fight him for it. They like the idea. Beedo even promies to keep quiet—for a price: five credits. Not sure if he is serious, Kast skeptically hands over the five credits, looking at Zardra and shrugging.

They all leave while Beedo heals Me Lyn. She wakes up confused. Kane hides his face while Beedo deals with her. Me Lyn explains her story to the Ithorian. Apparently, Fett saved her life when she was a child. Beedo then tries to dissuade her from following this path of vengeance by revealing the others’ treachery. He suggests she goes to look for Fett instead. She agrees and leaves. Kane turns back to Beedo.

They decide to head to a local cantina to watch the local vids, when they see people pulling apart for an Imperial Officer and a group of stormtroopers. Fabius pulls into the shadows behind Beedo as they pass by. One of the aliens spits on the officer. The officer pushes him down and shoots him. Kane convinces Beedo to leave so they can avoid trouble. He tells the Ithorian that there are plenty of cantinas. They duck down an alley and head for a different one. There are several youngsters at the end of the hall. They try and pick Kane’s pockets, but he catches the kid’s hand and warns him off. Beedo decides to try and take the five credits he got from Kast for keeping quiet and buys the kid’s services. He offers to buy clothes and food for all of them if they find out who the Empire is looking for. They plan a meet the next night.

They go into the Bantha’s Left, where they are supposed to meet the kids the next day. Before going in, Kane scopes out the layout of the front and back, just to be ready for the next night. All they can tell from the vid is that the Imperials are doing an “inspection” of the system. Beedo asks Kane for money so he can hire a prostitute; Kane reluctantly gives it to him. Fabius then wanders off to find a gambling table.

He sits down at a table as a Yarkora cleans out the table. He pulls between two of the humans. He wins the first hand with a natural Sabbacc. He manages to turn the next hand also and the Yarkora and one human leave. The last human stays. Much to his chagrin, Kane wins again. The human departs. Kane sits back and smiles as he rakes in his 860 credits.

Beedo comes down with the whore. He talked to her. Kane is annoyed. However, she told Beedo that the Imperials were after a Kubaz. Beedo says he wants to rescue her. He also wants to take out the pimp. Kane wants none of it. Beedo asks Kane to take her back to the ship while he takes care of the pimp.

Beedo goes up to the pimp under the guise of Dobo Hutsah to talk to him. After learning that the whore's—whose name is Naria Lester—son was sold to Bespin, he kills the pimp using Force Grip and pretends that it was a natural death. He then convinces the bodyguard to split the money with him and run.

When Kane gets back he tells everyone what happened. They are amazed. Odle, however, is still concerned that so many Tatooine people are there on Kegan.